(CNN) – China’s social networks were filled with anger after the News of the death of denouncing doctor Li Wenliang.
The topics “The Wuhan government owes an apology to Dr. Li Wenliang” and “We want freedom of expression” quickly became a trend in China’s similar Twitter platform, Weibo. Each had tens of thousands of visits before disappearing from the highly censored platform.
Another topic, called “I want freedom of expression”, had generated 1.8 million visits until the early hours of Friday, local time.
According to the statement of the Wuhan Central Hospital about Li’s death, a main comment said: “Countless young people will mature overnight after today: the world is not as beautiful as we imagine. Are you angry? If any of us here are lucky enough to speak to the public in the future, be sure to remember the anger of tonight. ”
The two trending topics censored by Weibo tonight:
# Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology #
# We want freedom of speech #
Both had tens of thousands of views before disappearing into this dark night. pic.twitter.com/LHEMsbn02I
– Nectar Gan (@Nectar_Gan) February 6, 2020
–
Why this is important: the outpouring of pain and anger worsened by the initial confusion. State media first published and then recanted his death, which led to accusations that they were trying to hide it.
The momentum against Chinese censors and calls for freedom are rarely seen: under President Xi Jinping’s mandate, control over the media and the Internet has increased, and tolerance for dissent has virtually disappeared.
The anger in China against the authorities and its handling of the crisis had already been growing for weeks. Now, Li’s death could become the drop that fills the glass.
– .
